2011 is the Year of the Bat.  Bats are wonderful creatures and are a protected species in our country. This protection has allowed the numbers of bat to rise over the last few years making it more likely that we can see bats flitting around our gardens and parks. Thursday 3rd November is National Non-Fiction Day and to celebrate this along with the Year of the Bat, we have created two podcasts full of bat facts for you and your children to listen along to.

Most children know something about bats, some of which is quite likely not to be true! We were delighted to invite Paul Lupton along to answer some questions about bats and dispel some popular myths. Paul was a teacher for many years and  now runs his  business, Argus Ecology, full time. Paul and his colleagues are a mine of information about bats and have put together a fact sheet for us along with some of their photographs. They are very keen to encourage children to find out more about bats and to help them understand how they can create a bat friendly environment.

If you would like to find out more about bats then you can visit the Bat Conservation Trust or The Year of the Bat’s websites. These websites are  full of information and have lots of resources to download.

The Podcasts

There are two podcasts suitable for different ages and that cover the following information.

Over 7’s: Different species of bat, food, size, mothers and babies, bats in winter, myths, bat sounds and creating a bat friendly environment.

Running time: 9m 10s

Under 7’s: Different species of bat, food, size, mothers and babies, bats in winter, myths, bat sounds and creating a bat friendly environment.

Running time: 6m 39s

You can download the podcasts and accompanying fact sheet and photographs here.

Once again, StoryPhones are running a free seminar and demonstrations on “Using Digital Audio in EYFS and KS1″ and we would like to invite everyone to come along and join us.

The seminar will be led by Eleanor Johnson, the creator of StoryPhones who will explain how MP3 players are opening up the world of audio for children and allowing practitioners to be more creative than ever in their use of audio stories, songs and resources across the curriculum.

The seminar will run on Tuesday 1st November at 2.00pm and 4.15 pm, at The Greenhouse, Greencroft Park, Annfield Plain, Co Durham, DH9 7XN. Every setting attending will receive the StoryPhones Bookshelf software and a free audio book.

Running alongside the semiar will be a classroom demonstration area, opportunities for hands on demonstrations of StoryPhones and an opportunity to see the huge range of audio resources available from the BookShelf download store.

The seminars are free and anyone can attend. Alternatively, you can drop in at any time for a demonstration and a chance to chat to our StoryPhones team.

Places for the seminars are filling rapidly and we only have a few spaces left for the 4.15 session. If you would like to attend then please phone 0845 652 0906 to book your place.

National Non-Fiction day is a celebration of non-fiction books and shows children that non-fiction books can be just as fun, exciting and absorbing as a story book! The day is organised by the Federation of Children’s Book Groups and Scholastic Children’s Books.

There are some fabulous non-fiction books available, beautifully written and illustrated. The National Non-Fiction Day website has a wealth of information available including a fantastic list of non-fiction books. This list recommends non-fiction books for all ages from a wide and varied range of topics including machines, people, animals, history, the Earth and Space. The website also has free downloads and information about authors and illustrators, everything you need to get your National Non-Fiction day started . If you would like to visit the website then please click here.

We have all of the Walker Nature Story Book titles available as MP3 downloads in the BookShelf download store. These books are a wonderful way of introducing young children to the world of non-fiction. Written in picture book format, the downloads include a ‘listen along’ and ‘read along ‘version of the story, an accompanying fact track and a song. As with all Walker audio books, these are beautifully produced and will captivate any listening child (and adult)!

It’s National Poetry Day on Thursday. I love poetry, I enjoy the way poets play with words and rhyme to create a story, image or emotion. Quite a few years ago when I was a supply teacher I used to carry a poetry folder around with me. The children knew all about the folder and we always used to have a poetry session at some point in the day. After a while, certain poems became firm favourites and were always requested.  The most popular ones were about crocodiles and knickers (although not in the same poem!)

National Poetry Day is a celebration of poetry for all ages. You can visit the official website to find out more about the day and to download ideas and poems.

If you are looking for new poems The Children’s Poetry Archive is a brilliant site. It’s crammed with beautifully written poems. You can also listen to recordings of these poems read by the poets themselves. I particularly liked the poem ‘The Seashell’ beautifully read by the poet, James Berry and to my great delight, Spike Milligan reading ‘In The Land of The Bumbly Boo’. My nursery children loved this poem, their favourite part was shouting the last line of the poem. There’s a such a range of poems for different themes or you can search by form such as rhymes or limericks.

Poems For … also has children’s poems to download. You will need to register and once you’ve done this you can download the poems. The children’s poems are in the ‘poems for … all ages’ section. They print as posters and you can place them around your building, outside too.

Of course, children are poets themselves and you can record their poems to share with others.

Children’s Book Week is a campaign led by The Book Trust and is all about encouraging children to read for pleasure. Having started my reading journey with Enid Blyton and Ladybird books, I have had the privilege to teach and to raise my family in an era when children’s literature has gone from strength to strength. There is a huge and wonderful selection of books available and now through technology, these are easily accessible for all children. Children’s Book Week is the opportunity to curl up with a story and disappear into the world of imagination or information. So whether you and your children are enjoying stories by reading a book, listening to an audio story, reading an ebook or taking part in storytelling, we hope everyone has fun.

There is a lot of information on the web about Children’s Book Week. Here are some sites we have found which you may like to visit.

The Book Trust’s Children’s Book Week Campaign

You will find free resources to download including posters, ideas and more useful links.

Playing by the Book

Zoe Toft regularly blogs about children’s books. She has lots of good ideas about ways of encouraging children to love reading. Zoe has some very good suggestions for Children’s Book Week.

Storyworks

Mary Medlicott is a story teller and author of several books including ‘The Little Book of Story Telling’ published by A & C Black. Her website has some brilliant resources and ideas to help get your storytelling started. Mary has just started a new blog to coincide with Children’s Book Week with the aim of encouraging people to become storytellers themselves. Mary’s first blog is full of very good ideas and thoughts and I am looking forward to reading her new posts.